Rear Control Arm Failure

[XAH03]

Hey everyone,

Just thought I would share a little incident that has just happened to my car.

The wife and I had just arrived home from a small sunday drive. Went to pull up the gutter out the front and heard the loudest bang in the car, it shook the whole car.

anyway after getting a new pair of undies on I climbed under the car to see if I could see anything. where I stopped the car was half on the driveway and half on the road (I didnt want to move it anywhere) I couldnt see anything from the back. so I jumped back in the car and gently rolled it down back onto the road and got another massive bang. stopped the car on level ground and had a look under the bum, I could see the drivers side swaybar linkage lower then the other side. so I gently drove the car back up the driveway and jacked it up and jumped underneath to find the swaybar linkage has ripped clean out of the rear control arm.

while I was under the car I checked the other side and could see small stress fractures in the same area.

heres some photos of the carnage

looks like I'll be giving ford a call tomorrow morning to get 2 new control arms.

[bjc]

Were you getting small clunks here and there when cornering (normal driving), backing out of driveways etc? Mine has been clunking for a little while now only on cornering and driveways in the rear end and wonder if its the same thing?

Here a clunk, there a clunk, everywhere a clunk clunk!

[XAH03]

Yeah it was clunking a little bit now that I think of it. It didn't really do it around corners but out of driveways and bumps at low speed it did. I wonder if it has anything to do with the swaybar??

On another matter, went down that street the other day. Your marks are still there haha

Edited 16/10/11 11:15 AM by XAH03

[sexual harrassment panda]

I think there is a ford dealer that sells the pair for $260 on ebay, can't seem to find it at the moment though.

[freeze_dk]

Mine clunks turning in and out of my driveway,, hope its not the same

[XAH03]

Ordered a new control arm from fraud today $265 trade price. I'll order the other side tomorrow just for piece of mind.

I'm thinking I might weld a plate on top to strengthen it from happening again.

[seventytwo]

Looks like this is not uncommon.

A nasty surprise waiting for me after a few months OS, droped the car car off the stands and take it for a drive to blow out the cobwebs, on turning back into the drive way I heard a rather loud bang from the rear end, put the car back on the jacks and find the sway bar linkage punch right through the lower control arm.

[ScatterBrain]

What springs do you have in the rear? Also is that a 22mm sway bar your using?

[seventytwo]

Stock springs and yes the sway bar is 22mm, not sure if the bar had anything to do with it or there is not enough meat on the control arm at that point

[senna_T]

The later arms have a double skin on them, BF and FG I believe.

Neglecting the bushes can be a big issue for the arms too, when the original bushes get soft the link pin moves around and opens up the hole. This in turn allows up and down movement.